Tales from the Loop

There’s something weird going on. Adults ignore it. Nobody can explain it. You must investigate! Tales from the Loop is a game in which kids unravel mysteries and go on strange adventures in an alternate version of the 1980s.

Built around the mechanics that power Mutant: Year Zero, the game focuses on quick setup, the creation of interesting characters, and the kind of fast-paced intrigue and excitement found in ET: The Extra-Terrestrial and Stranger Things.

Here’s how the publisher describes Tales from the Loop:

The landscape was full of machines and scrap metal connected to the facility in one way or another. Always present on the horizon were the colossal cooling towers, with their green obstruction lights. If you put your ear to the ground, you could hear the heartbeat of the Loop – the purring of the Gravitron, the central piece of engineering magic that was the focus of the Loop’s experiments. Scifi artist Simon Stålenhag’s paintings of Swedish 1980s suburbia, populated by fantastic machines and strange beasts, have won global acclaim. Now, you can step into the amazing world of the Loop.

Three Things About Tales from the Loop

Alternate Past: The game puts characters in a 1980s where robots are common, strange creatures exist, and gauss ships are real. It comes with two ready-to-use settings, the Mälaren Islands in Sweden, and Boulder City, Nevada.

Adventurous Kids: Characters in the game are 10-15 years old, and because adults generally are clueless and prone to ignoring what kids say, they have to investigate strange mysteries on their own.

Straightforward Mechanics: The game uses a six-sided (d6) dice pool system and is designed to minimize the amount of effort required by the gamemaster to prepare for a session.

Notes for Gaming Beginners

This is a very approachable game and is suitable for beginners. Through a combination of effective introductory text, clean layout, and numerous examples, it provides a good onramp for your first roleplaying experience. To get started, here’s what you’ll need:

The 196-page Tales from the Loop rulebook

Several six-sided (d6) “normal” dice

Pencils & note paper (3×5 cards are also handy, but not required)

Three to five players

Reviews

“It’s a gorgeous trip into a time that only happened in our imaginations, and yet it feels incredibly relatable.” – Beth Elderkin, io9

“I think it’s one of the best games I’ve played in a while – and it has more to do with the satisfaction of seeing characters you care about succeed than it does any robots or dinosaur.” – JayArr, Bell of Lost Souls